Toxic Cooking: Choosing Safer Cookware

Did you know chemicals can leach from your cookware into your food? Not just from plastics in the microwave or from Teflon either. More about that below.

First, safer choices for your cookware:

Stainless Steel – as long as you don’t have a nickel allergy, that is. Avoid cleaning frequently with abrasive materials which may scratch the surface, as chromium and nickel may then be released. Though, if you get “18/0” stainless steal it is nickel free (though therefore no longer truly stainless). See below for details.

Glass (including pyrex) – except for lead crystal of course, which contains lead!

Procelain or Ceramic – but watch out for old handmedowns and products not intended for cooking, which may contain lead or cadmium (see below).

Cast iron – is generally thought to be okay, though if you suffer from haemochromatosis or similar conditions you may want to steer clear as it can leach small amount of iron, particularly if it has not built up “a patina of seasoning”.

Edited 2017 to add – Cast Iron is now my favourite choice. We bought this cast iron set when we were travelling in 2014, and aside from the dutch oven (which was too heavy to bring back to Oz) we are still using it daily.

Ceramic coated cook ware – “The Nutrition Coach” Emma Skourakis chose Silit cookware when replacing some of her old pots and pans, as the safest option. If you’re in the right part of the world you can buy it on Amazon for a reasonable price. If you’re in Australia just do a search on Silit cookware Australia. The original places I found it and linked to no longer appear to sell it, but I found it on lots of other sites – shop around though, prices vary dramatically! [Edited 2017]

Next, what to avoid:

Non-stick cookware

You have probably heard something about non-stick cookware being potentially dangerous, but what does that mean? Teflon – and the same basic coating under many other trade names – is made from a synthetic polymer called polytetrafluoroetheylene (PTFE).

When heated to high heats (and this happens more quickly than you might suppose) , this emits chemicals that can course “Teflon flu”, and can kill a bird in seconds.

Of course, even if you don’t have (noticeable) symptoms, it may be doing longer term damage. According to the Environment Working Group (EWG) “The long-term effects of routine exposure to Teflon fumes, and from Teflon flu itself, have not been adequately studied.”

EWG also recommends that you ” Skip the self-cleaning function on your oven”, which may release toxic chemicals from non-stick parts of the oven’s interior.

Aluminium – anodised or non-anodised.

Aluminium cookware these days is generally anodised to prevent the aluminium leaching, but frequent exposure to acid foods can cause deanodisation.

Aluminium has been linked to brain and bone damage, can interfere with the central nervous system, and has even been linked by some studies to breast cancer. (source)

Copper Cookware

HealthyChild.org also cautions against using coated copper, as the coating can break down over time. Older copperware is likely coated with tin or nickel and should definitely be avoided.

Stainless Steal?

Stainless steel pots and pans are generally a good option, if you are not allergic to nickel, however some people prefer to avoid true stainless steel altogether, to avoid the nickel. HealthyChild.org notes that frequent cleaning with abrasive cleaners can damage the surface and release small amount of nickel and chromium.

How can you tell? If it’s marked

18/10 – it’s 18% chromium, 10% nickel

18/8 – it’s 18% chromium, 8% nickel

18/0 – it’s 18% chromium, no nickel

You can also tell with the magnet test – if it’s 18/0 a magnet will stick to it. Of course, if it’s 18/0 it also won’t be truly stainless. But, on the up side, it will likely be cheaper!

Older ceramics or those not intended for cooking

These may contain lead or cadmium in high levels. There are home test kits you can use, but they may not pick up low levels of these contaminents, which can still be dangerous. This also applies to older enamel on cast iron, as the enamel used to contain lead. (source) Also be cautious of ceramics bought in another country, which may have different standards.

17 comments for “Toxic Cooking: Choosing Safer Cookware”

You know this is something I had truly never thought about! Now I’m gonna have to go through my cupboards and check everything! Thanks for sharing. #teamIBOTKylie Purtell, A Study in Contradictions recently posted..When is a joke, not a joke?

Thanks for the post. I have been wondering about the safety of Aluminized Steel? Apparently the aluminum is oxidized and I was told it was no longer reactive, however I have been unable to find any evidence regarding this.
I hope you can help me out with this question.
Thanks

Sorry Bron! I didn’t find anything conclusive either and forgot to get back to you. The claim is that the process it has gone through makes it inert (aluminium and silicon mixed) but I haven’t found any research testing it.

I know.
I have non-teflon semi-non-stick pans, but it turns out they still have the PTFE – but, is it as bad? I still need to do more research, as there is a lot of conflicting information out there. Limiting my use for now 🙁

Kirsten in Brief…

In 2010 Kirsten was on maternity leave with her third child, firmly established in suburbia, and needed an outlet for her passion for the environment & sustainable living. Thus Sustainable Suburbia was born.

In 2014 she became a Norwex Independent Sales Consultant, and found a new way to pursue her passion, teaching small groups of (mostly) women about how to get rid of many of the toxic chemicals in their homes.

In 2015 she discovered it could be even more rewarding to help other women pursue their goals, when she became a leader with Norwex.

In 2018 she plans to help even more people to ditch the nasty chemicals and in some cases to start teaching others to do the same. She hopes to bring many more people into the Norwex family. She also hopes to find time to produce a 2nd edition of Less Toxic Living.